How A Slum City Beat The Virus

The determination of its residents and the tireless efforts of health workers and NGOs have helped Dharavi become an exemplar in the battle against Covid

- Kiran D. Tare

Frequently tagged as ‘Asia’s largest slum’, Dharavi is made up of 17 localities, each one named after either the profession of its resident community or their state. Thus a potter will most likely be living in Kumbharwada and a fisherman in Koliwada. Over 800,000 people (which is nearly half the population of Goa) live here, in an area no more than 2.5 square kilometers. On average, one small room in Dharavi, measuring 10x10 ft, houses eight people. Surrounded by Mahim, Matunga, and Dadar, Dharavi is the beating heart of India’s commercial capital.

Which is why when Covid first arrived here on April 1, Dharavi threatened to become a tinderbox for the spread of the disease, a potential super-spreaders for Mumbai’s 12.3 million-strong population. With its history as a breeding ground for disease and epidemics in the past, the fear was that Covid would escalate into a crisis like the outbreak of bubonic plague, which killed half of Dharavi’s residents in 1896.